


Old Friends

by songofdefiance



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: DOTO spoilers, Gen, Human!Outsider, Post-Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Prompt Fill, Whales
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 04:26:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12809589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songofdefiance/pseuds/songofdefiance
Summary: The song is just as he remembers - low and melancholy, making him feel as though he’s standing at the edge of a cliff, but is unafraid of falling.





	Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: "Human Outsider and whales, ideally fluff."
> 
> Hope y'all like it!

The sky is overcast at the beginning of the second week of their journey - one week away from Dunwall.  The water is calmer than usual today, and the crew is quieter.  It’s for these reasons that the Outsider hears it.

He’s perched on a barrel, turning his name over in his mind (as he so often does when he’s lost in thought) when the sound reaches him, and he gets up and heads toward the railing without really thinking about it.  

The song is just as he remembers - low and melancholy, making him feel as though he’s standing at the edge of a cliff, but is unafraid of falling.  He watches, transfixed, as a great being surfaces in the distance, the song growing in volume.

If there’s one thing that the Outsider misses about the Void, it’s the company of whales.  He had felt a kinship with the beasts, hunted as they were, every part of them used up and destroyed by humans.  They had been his company all four thousand years in the Void, and though he likes listening to the sounds of a city bustling around him, there are times when he wishes he could listen to their music again.

The whale drifts closer to them, until the Outsider can see one great eye staring at him.  He wonders if the leviathan recognizes him - if it wonders what he’s doing outside of the Void, without eyes that are filmed over with black - but the whale merely submerges again, nothing showing but its back.  It seems content to swim parallel to the ship, for now.

“Now that’s something you don’t see every day.”

The Outsider jumps.  He still isn’t used to people sneaking up on him, but Billie seems to delight in it.  She leans against the railing next to him, also staring at the whale.

The Outsider follows her gaze.  “I suppose they’re not a common sight in reality.”

Indeed, the whale has gained the attention of many of the sailors, who are all gawking at their aquatic tag-along.  

“I was talking about you not being seasick,” Billie says, her voice as dry as bone.

The Outsider blinks, then realizes that yes, the presence of the whale had made him momentarily forget his nausea.  Even remembering it now, though, isn’t enough for it to come back; instead, he continues to stare, feeling like he could live in this moment forever.

“You miss them.”  It isn’t a question.

“A bit,” the Outsider admits.  “But I think that I prefer to see them here over being in their company in the Void.”

Billie is silent for a moment.  Then: “I know what you mean.”

The conversation lapses after that, but that’s alright.  For now, the Outsider just wants to watch the whale.


End file.
